The Devil and Father Amorth

This will not be popular amongst the religious but... I'm very sceptical when it comes to Satan and demons. Why? Why would Satan possess random Italian lady? A demon maybe, but Satan? No. I'm sure he has better things to do.

I hear the argument from religious people that it is to destroy a person's faith, or to steal their souls, but if you look at it logically, how many are lost to possession? Wouldn't it only increase a person's faith in God and religion, exorcisms always seem to be successful, excluding the odd one or two horror stories. The only thing it benefits is religion, and a person's faith in their God.

I honestly believe that if Satan existed, he would have a far bigger agenda, like control over a population, making people commit atrocities in his name, he would cause division, hate, encourage discrimination, he would control people through fear of sinning, and threats of eternal torture... Oh wait, that sounds like... RELIGION!

The Exorcist is still considered (rightfully) as one of the best horror movies of all time. This documentary goes beyond that, with the original director giving us some insights. Where the story originated, original shooting location, chracters versus their real life inspired ... humans/demons.

All that is well and good, but unfortunately even with a short running time, it does feel long at times. Especially during the "real" exorcism. It's nice to get a behind the scenes look, but it doesn't add anything to the discussion really. Although I can see that some may feel it has more weight, because it is "real". Why do I use "" when I write real? Because even the documentary, tries to pick it apart, with experts (doctors) and priests talking about it.

And even their arguments and their insight is nothing really new, at least not that much new things. I like Friedkin, he is a great director, so he does get the most of certain situations (though his insistance on asking the same question over and over again to a priest, about his spiritual "power" does feel a bit long and annoying), overall the documentary could have been shorter though. I do hope he makes more feature films - they tend to be really great

The Devil and Father Amorth (2017)

** (out of 4)

For better or worse, THE EXORCIST will always be the film people think of whenever William Friedkin is discussed. I personally don't think it's his best film but there's no question that it was a ground-breaking motion picture that was the director's most successful at the box office. It's interesting to see that towards the end of his career he would revisit the subject of exorcisms but this time it's the true story of Father Amorth who let Friedkin film his ninth exorcism on a woman.

THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH got released to mostly negative reviews with many calling into question the ethics of Friedkin because of a twist that happens towards the end of the picture. I'll get to that more in a minute but there's no doubt that this here is a rather questionable movie for the director to tackle and especially when you consider it's just 69-minutes, which makes it feel more like a Blu-ray extra instead of an actual feature. In fact, Friedkin hasn't taken too kindly to the negative press this film has gotten and has really lashed out at critics.

Well, I'm sorry to say it but I have to agree with the negativity surrounding this picture. The first ten or so minutes basically has Friedkin talking about THE EXORCIST including revisiting the locations where it was filmed. He talks about the case that the movie was based on and then we get some archival footage of William Peter Blatty discussing the original case and the film. Umm... okay. I'm really not sure why we needed this stuff unless it was some sort of attempt to bring more attention to this movie. Perhaps the running time wasn't long enough so this was added?

Whatever the case is, none of this early footage is of much interest but then we jump to the exorcism that is being performed. We hear from the woman's family as well as Father Amorth who talks about exorcisms and various ones that he has performed. Once we get to the exorcism the main thing that's going to jump out is the voice coming from the woman. Some have question whether it's a sound effect or not but I really don't know. Are these scenes scary? Not at all.

What follows is Friedkin talking to a various of doctors and showing them the footage. There's a debate on whether it is some sort of brain issue yet we never really get any test results from the woman herself. The back and forth debate on the religious issue to the medical one is rather interesting but then we get back to the controversial ending. I'm not going to spoil it for people but I must admit that I found it to be incredibly stupid and I didn't buy it at all. It's like one of those monster hunter television shows where nothing ever happens until the moment a camera isn't set up.

THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH is a film that I was really looking forward to but it's a real shame that it turned out the way it did.

I like how it was documentary style. I also liked that they showed both sides of the argument. Her voice when she was possessed sounded like the nazi zombies from call of duty. The ending was a bit ridiculous

This was an interesting, but disappointing film. The various interviews were informative. The main draw was obviously the exorcism. It was so not scary. It was ridiculous. The voice was clearly manipulated in post production. It was the same voice effect used in dozens of movies. It's probably labeled "Devil Voice #3" in the drop down list of audio filters in their editing software. You need only look at the reactions of the numerous family members in the room. As the harsh demonic voice screams at the priest, they are not startled in the least. They calmly look on, smiling and nodding like they're gathered around the table for Sunday dinner. No fear, no drama... Just silliness.